The Mystery of the Yakima Avenue Diver
A rare northern bird is discovered in the middle of a city street at night, baffling locals until a taxidermist cements its place in history.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A couple of months ago a singular bird of the duck species was captured one night on Yakima Avenue. He was evidently a foreigner to this clime, and when confined to the narrow limits of the irrigation ditch which flows by the Hotel Yakima, he seemed out of his element and soon died. All claimed to have never seen its like before, until Marshal McMurtry put in an appearance and identified it as a great northern diver. Reference to the encyclopaedia confirmed it is an inhabitant of the northern regions, more especially Iceland, Labrador and Spitsbergen, and is only seen to the south during the winter season. As the bird was caught on Yakima Avenue in the heart of summer, it is a subject of much wonder how he got there. Mr. Wallace Atherton had him mounted by a taxidermist at Tacoma, and now the bird adorns the office of the Hotel Yakima.
“As the bird was caught on Yakima Avenue in the heart of summer and in the dead of night, it is a subject of much wonder how he got there.”
Before the internet, a mysterious bird in the city was an immediate local sensation that commanded column inches. The preservation of the bird in a hotel lobby mirrors the era's fascination with natural history and exotic taxidermy displays.
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